Review article

The Professional Responsibility of Psychiatrists

Miroslav Goreta ; Vrapče Clinic for Psychiatry, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The professional responsibility of psychiatrists is based on the obligation to respect the currently valid professional standards, some of which are clearly defined and widely accepted, while others are still being defined, which makes it more difficult to prove whether or not they have been observed. The paper gives an overview of 17 professional standards covering general and forensic psychiatry, the descriptions of which indicate the degree of their acceptance and the need for their potential elaboration in the segment in which acceptance is insufficient, both in clinical and forensic-psychiatric applications.
The basic criteria for the formulation of the described standards are contained in international classifications of mental and behavioural disorders, in internationally recognized psychiatric textbooks, in the Code of Ethics of the World Psychiatric Association, other national psychiatric codes of ethics and in the Croatian Act on the Protection of Persons With Mental Disorders.
The described standards (informed consent, psychiatric diagnosis, psychopharmacological therapy, psychotherapy, forced hospitalization, the keeping of documents, the professional secret, etc.) are offered as the basis for the assessment of potential responsibility for medical errors and the compensation for damage caused by such errors.

Keywords

psychiatrist's responsibility; professional standards; psychiatric ethics; compensation for damage

Hrčak ID:

100080

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/100080

Publication date:

28.12.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

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